Visions of the future [autonomous vehicles] will bring have already crept into City Council meetings, political campaigns, state legislation and decisions about what cities should build today. That unnerves some transportation planners and transit advocates, who fear unrealistic hopes for driverless cars — and how soon they’ll get here — could lead cities to mortgage the present for something better they haven’t seen.
— The New York Times

With new technologies emerging, cities are debating the most effective transportation systems to fund. Caught in the midst of this struggle is the proposition of paving over the New York subway in order to create an underground highway for autonomous vehicles. Those championing the idea believe... View full entry

The estimated cost of the Long Island Rail Road project, known as “East Side Access,” has ballooned to $12 billion, or nearly $3.5 billion for each new mile of track — seven times the average elsewhere in the world. The recently completed Second Avenue subway on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and the 2015 extension of the No. 7 line to Hudson Yards also cost far above average, at $2.5 billion and $1.5 billion per mile, respectively.
— New York Times

Against the back drop of the New York subway system's massive delays, the New York Times looks into why project costs for a 3.5-mile tunnel connecting Grand Central Terminal to the Long Island Rail Road ballooned to nearly $3.5 million for each new mile of track. View full entry

During the speech, Cuomo suggested that one way to get more funding for the ailing transit system would be to offer companies the opportunity to sponsor subway stations for an annual fee. That money could go toward “enhanced maintenance, additional security, and aesthetic features.”
— Curbed NY

The practice of letting corporations put their stamp on the subway has precedents— in 2009, the MTA sold the naming rights for Atlantic Ave–Pacific St station in Brooklyn to Barclays, which according to NY Times, gets MTA $200,000 per year for the next two decades. However, many crucial... View full entry

What do you do with a sad, funky, abandoned trolley terminus? Well, if it's the former Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal under Delancey Street in New York City, you make the world's first underground park by virtue of adding some mirrors, skylights, and vegetation. One acre in size, the freshly... View full entry

In 2019, New York City's Hurricane Sandy-damaged L Train tunnel will shut down for repairs, making it tricky to get across the East River without a new form of transport. In a competition sponsored by the Van Alen Institute to find alternatives, AECOM suggested building a fiber-glass fabric tunnel... View full entry

Rikers Island looms large in New York’s imagination. It is home to a notorious complex of prisons, one whose excesses are still being discovered by the media and the courts. Many would like to see the Rikers Island closed forever, or barring that, to at least change the name to something that does not honor a slaveowner.

One group of designers has a different goal for Rikers Island—one that is within reach and, in fact, already at hand.
— CityLab

"The problem: On the most prominent map of New York City, Rikers Island is a nonentity. The island simply isn’t labeled on Metropolitan Transportation Authority maps inside the New York subway. The solution: Label it. On every map."For more on the #SeeRikers campaign – or to create your own... View full entry

There is the dart-and-hustle option, entailing a sprint between entrances before the doors close, and the perilous — and prohibited — passing between the doors at the end of the car.

But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants to examine another route: a new generation of subway trains with open pathways between cars.
— the New York Times

Similar designs already travel through cities like Paris and Toronto, where they have been reported to increase passenger capacity by 10%.Currently, riders can face a steep fine for trying to move between subway cars.Related:Port Authority officially confirms March opening date for WTC... View full entry